5 tips for turning social media traffic into sales

by Josiah Mackenzie on March 31, 2009

Alright, so maybe you can’t monetize social media directly – but it can definitely help in the sales process. Let me give you some examples of how hotels can use social media to increase bookings:

1) Sell with social proof. If your hotel has good reviews and an excellent rating on sites like TripAdvisor, leverage those 3rd-party recommendations. The opinions of other guests carry more credibility than something you would say about your own hotel.

2) Crowdsource your website content and marketing materials. Slick photos don’t always sell the most. By involving your past guests, potential new guests get to see real, original content.

3) If you already have professional photos of your property, try hosting them on Flickr so people searching for hotel rooms in your city will see them. By embedding photos from photo sharing sites (instead of your website server), you get free hosting and free referral traffic.

4) Use Twitter to sell last-minute rooms or other perishable offers. If you’re built a community of followers, sending updates through this channel can be more responsive than email.

5) Use destination blogs to attract corporate and leisure travel planners. Especially in rural or remote areas, your biggest competition is not the hotel down the street but another location. By providing information on area attractions and events, you’ll sell rooms by being the source for useful information.

How are you using social media to increase sales at your hotel?

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Article by Josiah Mackenzie // March 31, 2009 Josiah spends pretty much all day, every day looking for ways you can use new media and the social web to improve your business. To bring him on your team, you should look at our Insider's Circle program here.